Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not![edit]

Getting a good education and making good grades no longer ensures success, and nobody seems to have noticed, except our children.

“Today, the most dangerous advice you can give a child is ‘Go to school, get good grades and look for a safe secure job,’ ” he likes to say. “That is old advice, and it’s bad advice. If you could see what is happening in Asia, Europe, South America, you would be as concerned as I am.”

It’s bad advice, he believes, “because if you want your child to have a financially secure future, they can’t play by the old set of rules. It’s just too risky.”

Education is the foundation of success[...]

Remember that financial intelligence is the mental process via which we solve our financial problems.

As a process, choosing for myself turned out to be much more valuable in the long run, rather than simply accepting or rejecting a single point of view.

“I can’t afford it.” The other dad forbade those words to be used. He insisted I say, “How can I afford it?” One is a statement, and the other is a question.

[...]proper mental exercise increases your chances for wealth.

“The reason I must be rich is because I have you kids.”

“There is a difference between being poor and being broke. Broke is temporary, and poor is eternal.”

If you can’t make up you mind decisively, then you’ll never learn to make money anyway.

“But that is not how life teaches you, and I would say that life is the best teacher of all. Most of the time, life does not talk to you. It just sort of pushes you around. Each push is life saying, ‘Wake up. There’s something I want you to learn.’ ”

“If you learn life’s lessons, you will do well. If not, life will just continue to push you around. People do two things. Some just let life push them around. Others get angry and push back. But they push back against their boss, or their job, or their husband or wife. They do not know it’s life that’s pushing.”

“Life pushes all of us around. Some give up. Others fight. A few learn the lesson and move on. They welcome life pushing them around. To these few people, it means they need and want to learn something. They learn and move on. Most quit, and a few like you fight.”

Most people want everyone else in the world to change but themselves.

Let me tell you, it’s easier to change yourself than everyone else.”

“The poor and the middle class work for money.” “The rich have money work for them.”

You see, true learning takes energy, passion, a burning desire.

When it comes to money, most people want to play it safe and feel secure. So passion does not direct them. Fear does.”

“Simply because it’s easier to learn to work for money, especially if fear is your primary emotion when the subject of money is discussed.”

Most people never see the trap they are in.

“Most people have a price. And they have a price because of human emotions named fear and greed.

[...]they feel the fear of not having money. Instead of confronting the fear, they react instead of think.

Money is running their lives, and they refuse to tell the truth about that. Money is in control of their emotions and hence their souls.”

“I’ve met so many people who say, ‘Oh, I’m not interested in money.’ Yet they’ll work at a job for eight hours a day. That’s a denial of truth. If they weren’t interested in money, then why are they working?

‘Will a job be the best solution to this fear over the long run?’ In my opinion, the answer is ‘no.’

An education and a job are important. But it won’t handle the fear.

“The main cause of poverty or financial struggle is fear and ignorance, not the economy or the government or the rich. It’s self-inflicted fear and ignorance that keeps people trapped.

If you are going to build the Empire State Building, the first thing you need to do is dig a deep hole and pour a strong foundation. If you are going to build a home in the suburbs, all you need to do is pour a 6-inch slab of concrete. Most people, in their drive to get rich, are trying to build an Empire State Building on a 6-inch slab.

Illiteracy, both in words and numbers, is the foundation of financial struggle.

Money often puts a spotlight on what we do not know.

A fool and his money is one big party.

They know that professional success is no longer solely linked to academic success, as it once was.

A person can be highly educated, professionally successful and financially illiterate.

The poor and middle class all too often allow the power of money to control them. By simply getting up and working harder, failing to ask themselves if what they do makes sense, they shoot themselves in the foot as they leave for work every morning. By not fully understanding money, the vast majority of people allow the awesome power of money to control them. The power of money is used against them.

The fear of being different prevents most people from seeking new ways to solve their problems.

When we were told to follow set procedures and not deviate from the rules, we could see how this schooling process actually discouraged creativity.

And when it comes to money, high emotions tend to lower financial intelligence.

A problem with school is that you often become what you study.

Life is sometimes tough when you do not fit the “standard” profile.

My real estate strategy, on the other hand, is to start small and keep trading the properties up for bigger properties and, therefore, delaying paying taxes on the gain. This allows the value to increase dramatically. I generally hold real estate less than seven years.

The poor and middle class buy luxuries with their own sweat, blood and children’s inheritance.

If you know what you’re talking about, you have a fighting chance.

When someone sues a wealthy individual they are often met with layers of legal protection, and often find that the wealthy person actually owns nothing. They control everything, but own nothing.

We all have tremendous potential, and we all are blessed with gifts. Yet, the one thing that holds all of us back is some degree of self-doubt. It is not so much the lack of technical information that holds us back, but more the lack of self-confidence. Some are more affected than others.

Often in the real world, it’s not the smart that get ahead but the bold.

The people who get out of the “Rat Race” in the game the quickest are the people who understand numbers and have creative financial minds.

Limiting your options is the same as hanging on to old ideas.

That is financial intelligence. It is not so much what happens, but how many different financial solutions you can think of to turn a lemon into millions. It is how creative you are in solving financial problems.

I’d rather welcome change than cling to the past.

The idea in anything is to use your technical knowledge, wisdom and love of the game to cut the odds down, to lower the risk.

Failure is part of the process of success.

People who avoid failure also avoid success.

You see with your mind what others miss with their eyes.

In other words, a majority of people let their lack of money stop them from making a deal.

Investing is not buying. It’s more a case of knowing.

It is what you do not know that is your greatest risk.

There is always risk, so learn to manage risk instead of avoid it.

In my attempt to be helpful, I found myself defending my suggestion.

“I am a terrible writer. You are a great writer. I went to sales school. You have a master’s degree. Put them together and you get a best-selling author’ and a ‘best-writing author.’ ”

The world is filled with smart, talented, educated and gifted people. We meet them every day. They are all around us.

The sad truth is, great talent is not enough.

[...]financial intelligence is a synergy of accounting, investing, marketing and law.

When it comes to money, the only skill most people know is to work hard.

[...]schools reward people who study more and more about less and less.

Job is an acronym for ‘Just Over Broke.’

When I ask the classes I teach, “How many of you can cook a better hamburger than McDonald’s?” almost all the students raise their hands. I then ask, “So if most of you can cook a better hamburger, how come McDonald’s makes more money than you?” The answer is obvious: McDonald’s is excellent at business systems. The reason so many talented people are poor is because they focus on building a better hamburger and know little to nothing about business systems.

The world is filled with talented poor people.

All too often, they’re poor or struggle financially or earn less than they are capable of, not because of what they know but because of what they do not know.

And in all my years, I have never met a rich person who has never lost money. But I have met a lot of poor people who have never lost a dime…investing, that is.

The fear of losing money is real. Everyone has it. Even the rich. But it’s not fear that is the problem. It’s how you handle fear. It’s how you handle losing. It’s how you handle failure that makes the difference in one’s life. That goes for anything in life, not just money. The primary difference between a rich person and a poor person is how they handle that fear.

“It’s a Texan’s attitude toward risk, reward and failure I’m talking about. It’s how they handle life. They live it big.

“Winning means being unafraid to lose.”

[...]take a loss and make it a win.

Texans don’t bury their failures. They get inspired by them. They take their failures and turn them into rallying cries. Failure inspires Texans to become winners. But that formula is not just the formula for Texans. It is the formula for all winners.

I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.

Failure inspires winners.

The greatest secret of winners is that failure inspires winning.

There is a big difference between hating losing and being afraid to lose.

If you have little money and you want to be rich, you must first be “focused,” not “balanced.”

If you look at anyone successful, at the start they were not balanced. Balanced people go nowhere. They stay in one spot. To make progress, you must first go unbalanced. Just look at how you make progress walking. Thomas Edison was not balanced. He was focused. Bill Gates was not balanced. He was focused. Donald Trump is focused. George Soros is focused. George Patton did not take his tanks wide. He focused them and blew through the weak spots in the German line. The French went wide with the Maginot Line, and you know what happened to them. If you have any desire of being rich, you must focus.

Doubt is expensive.

As I said, getting out of the rat race is technically easy. It doesn’t take much education, but those doubts are cripplers for most people.

Cynics criticize, and winners analyze

How can I afford to never work again?

Eleanor Roosevelt said it best: “Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”

I have found that many people use arrogance to try to hide their own ignorance.

It’s just like riding a bike. After a little wobbling, it’s a piece of cake. But when it comes to money, it’s the determination to get through the wobbling that’s a personal thing.

I do it for myself and the people I love. It’s love that gets me over the hurdles and sacrifices.

The net result: I still have the old way I used to think, and I have Peter’s[Lynch] way of looking at the same problem or situation.

A truly intelligent person welcomes new ideas, for new ideas can add to the synergy of other accumulated ideas.

Listening is more important than talking.

I would say that one of the hardest things about wealth building is to be true to yourself and be willing to not go along with the crowd.

The power of self-discipline. If you cannot get control of yourself, do not try to get rich.

So I pay myself first, invest the money, and let the creditors yell.

I know that sounds tough, but as I said, if you’re not tough inside, the world will always push you around anyway.

True, I have lost money on many occasions. But I only play with money I can afford to lose.

For while the process of developing cash flow from an asset column in theory is easy, it is the mental fortitude of directing money that is hard.

Due to external temptations, it is much easier in today’s consumer world to simply blow it out the expense column.

Too often today, we focus to borrowing money to get the things we want instead of focusing on creating money.

To be the master of money, you need to be smarter than it. Then money will do as it is told. It will obey you. Instead of being a slave to it, you will be the master of it. That is financial intelligence.

Copying or emulating heroes is true power learning.

Poor people are more greedy than rich people

It is true that your world is only a mirror of you.

All you need to be is generous with what you have, and the powers will be generous with you.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

Most sellers ask too much.

Moral of the story: Make offers.

Finding a good deal, the right business, the right people, the right investors, or whatever is just like dating. You must go to the market and talk to a lot of people, make a lot of offers, counteroffers, negotiate, reject and accept.

I told him that his profit is made when you buy, not when you sell.

Small thinkers don’t get the big breaks. If you want to get richer, think bigger first.

Action always beats inaction.

Today, we need greater financial intelligence to simply survive.

Education and wisdom about money are important. Start early. Buy a book. Go to a seminar. Practice. Start small.

It’s what is in your head that determines what is in your hands. Money is only an idea.

Today, don’t play it safe, play it smart.

You can only learn so much by reading. You cannot learn to ride a bicycle by reading a book.